Every aircraft is different... every airline is different. It all depends on what the airline has sent up with their maintenance plan. Manufactures set up what is called the MRB, which is the basic requirement for maintenance by time and cycles... depending on how the item is tracked. But even then the airline can change that with the approval of their govening agency... FAA, CAB... etc. So to give 'firm' information can not be done. What this all means is.... BA may do a 'A' check on their 747-400 every 400hrs.... Virgin may do one every 200hrs, Air France may do one every 300hrs, UAL may do it every 500hrs.

As far as the A380, A350, B787 that information has not yet been established as the aircraft are yet to fly or enter service.....I'd think the A380 is close to being released as it's well into flight test. This is part of what flight test is required for. Establishing maintenance inspection times. As with the A380.... the problem that came up with the tail a month back. They will either lower the inspection times for that area, or if serious enough, re-design the area.

[Edited 2006-08-13 17:15:04]

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog"

An approved Maintenance Organisation has something called an AMS (Approved Maintenance Schedule).

The AMS Details all the maintenance required on an aircraft and the periods/intervals that these needed to carry out.

An aircraft needs maintenance all the time. After every single flight, an engineer needs to perform a Transit Check before the next flight can take place. Every 36hrs a "Daily" check needs to be carried out. Every 7 days a "Weekly" check needs to be carried out. Every 30 days a monthly check needs to be done.

Every 500hrs (Depending on airline and type) the aircraft will be towed into a hangar and a more detailed "Service" will be carried out... There was a topic recently on this issue...

Quoting Kaddyuk (Reply 2):After every single flight, an engineer needs to perform a Transit Check before the next flight can take place. Every 36hrs a "Daily" check needs to be carried out. Every 7 days a "Weekly" check needs to be carried out. Every 30 days a monthly check needs to be done.

Again, the above is airline specific and not all airlines operate like this.........

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog"

Aircraft require maintenance (repair) when something when something is found broken or worn. Certain items can be deferred until the next scheduled maintenance (A, C or D Check). But items that are broken and not found in the Master Minimum Equipment List (MMEL or MEL), the Configuration Deviation List (CDL) or are outside the Structural Repair Manual (SRM) Negligible Damage Limits, must be repaired or deferred by the operators engineering department (usually with approval of the manufacture) before the next revenue flight.

Kaddy, is a transit check not an ETOPS requirement? I think it is, an aircraft does not need to be seen by an engineer after every flight, example, a routine flight with a 757 to turkey may have a pre flight carried out downroute by a Flight crew. It should be seen by an engineer on return to a maintenance base for inspection, monitoring of out of phase maintenance requirements, usually a daily but that will depend on the operators maintenance interval.
Your answer is very specific to VS, most of your flights will be extended range ops, hence, transit checks. The aviation industry is so massive, it takes years to be able to confidently and accurately answer some of the questions in this forum, it seems to me you have gained as much knowledge as you could have in the brief time you have been in the industry, but be careful not to come across as a 'know it all', we are all still learning. I am still new to the industry, only 6 years, but I know that I still dont know that much, be like a sponge, take in knowledge and be careful how you and who you profess the knowledge too, when you suprise someone one day, you will know what I mean !!

Quoting Kaddyuk (Reply 2):An aircraft needs maintenance all the time. After every single flight, an engineer needs to perform a Transit Check before the next flight can take place. Every 36hrs a "Daily" check needs to be carried out. Every 7 days a "Weekly" check needs to be carried out. Every 30 days a monthly check needs to be done.

Last place i worked did not do transit checks...only did Daily after 24 hours( at base) 48 hours(away from base...and A(150 hours) and B(800 hours) Checks...Followed by C-Checks

GS

Sometimes all you can do is look them in the eye and ask " how much did your mom drink when she was pregnant with you?"

Quoting A/c train (Reply 6):Kaddy, is a transit check not an ETOPS requirement? I think it is, an aircraft does not need to be seen by an engineer after every flight, example, a routine flight with a 757 to turkey may have a pre flight carried out downroute by a Flight crew. It should be seen by an engineer on return to a maintenance base for inspection, monitoring of out of phase maintenance requirements, usually a daily but that will depend on the operators maintenance interval.
Your answer is very specific to VS, most of your flights will be extended range ops, hence, transit checks. The aviation industry is so massive, it takes years to be able to confidently and accurately answer some of the questions in this forum, it seems to me you have gained as much knowledge as you could have in the brief time you have been in the industry, but be careful not to come across as a 'know it all', we are all still learning. I am still new to the industry, only 6 years, but I know that I still dont know that much, be like a sponge, take in knowledge and be careful how you and who you profess the knowledge too, when you suprise someone one day, you will know what I mean !!

Most certainly didnt mean for my reply to come across as arrogant or "Know It All" a/c train.

Certainly it depends on the operators and their own individual AMS... I can only offer from my own experience and knowlege...

Quoting EMBQA (Reply 1):As far as the A380, A350, B787 that information has not yet been established as the aircraft are yet to fly or enter service.....I'd think the A380 is close to being released as it's well into flight test. This is part of what flight test is required for. Establishing maintenance inspection times. As with the A380.... the problem that came up with the tail a month back. They will either lower the inspection times for that area, or if serious enough, re-design the area.

I was speaking with a couple of guys from Boeing last week who are involved in the 787 project and they were saying that they are hoping for the 'C' check interval to be as long as 3 years. But I would guess that it will just have heavier 'A' checks in between instead.

I guess that answering to this question is pretty much like answering a question about the speed limits (at least here in Denmark).
People want to know an exact number of kilometers per hour they may drive as a max on the road they are driving on.
Really the speed limits depend on a lot of factors in the concrete situation, but because people are not normally academics and does not evaluate the situation on a scientific level, they want a thumb rule. Thats why you can see signs saying 50 kph or 80 or what ever....
As Mel points out in reply 11, there are also the unscheduled checks.

Quote:Near the forward entry door the Multiple Site Damage cracks have joined to form a single crack about 6-8 inches long. This crack was noticed by two passengers as they boarded the aircraft in Hilo. The crack was long enough and wide enough that the internal fiberglass insulation was being extruded from it. The passengers did not report the crack, feeling that if the aircraft was not safe, the airline would obviously not fly it.

The different scheduled checks are based on knowledge about how an airplane deteriorates during time and because of usage.
But some times we all get wiser the hard way. The laws of nature are more a bit complex than the scientists knowledge.
The scheduled checks are advanced technical "rules of thumbs" (so to say) based on many years of experience and a lot of crashes.

Hawk21, do you not come under a different regulation? I think so, therefore rules are different, you dont NOT need an EASA 145 approval for a pre flight inspection under EASA. As I said, industry is too big for a definitive answer, all we can really do is combine our experiences and tell each other how each operator does it.

Kaddy, I apologise for that last post, I read it now and it seems as though I am getting at you a bit!! I think you know were im coming from anyway, were you involved in that virgin nigeria A340 engine change at LGW recently? were did you get all the stands from? is the LGW hangar not ready yet?

Quoting JHSfan (Reply 7):Oykie, you should download this Lufthansa Report. Look at D Check figures for a 707 and a 747 in the "Facts and Figures" on page 17. The rest of the report may also be of interest.

Yours in realtime
JHSfan

JHSfan. You got me some of the information that I was seeking. I realize that there are huge diversities in the scheduled maintenance for each airplane, but this is really something that I wanted. A simple overview even though not correct for all airlines. I guess Lufthansa's numbers should be according to the correct standards

Does anyone know in average how much time it takes to do the different checks? How many man hours?

Dream no small dream; it lacks magic. Dream large, then go make that dream real - Donald Douglas

At my airline (regional jet for US Airways, Delta, United, and American Eagle) service checks are done every 2 days. Rountine inspection are done every 14 days.
The A to C checks are scheduled by Maintenance Control.